Independent Electoral Management Bodies - Any Impact on the Observed Level of Democracy? A Conceptual Framework

What kind of institutions are needed to stabilize and foster
democracy?
Clearly elections are crucial and much of the institutional and
legal surrounding of
elections has been subject to research. Two institutional variables
have been neglected though, specifically in empirical research:
Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) and International Observer
Missions (EOMs). Can EMBs and EOMs foster free and fair elections?
If yes, under what conditions? And what kind of competences are
needed for them? We hypothesize that both can become crucial
institutions for free and fair elections. Whereas independent
central banks or audit courts control special issue areas in order
to take certain decision out of the realm of politics, EMBs control
the moment of the set-up of government—the election, when
conflicts of interest of politicians are at its peak. Although other
kinds of independent administrative agencies have been the subject
of political science and economic research, EMBs and EOMs have also
been neglected here. This article undertakes to outline a conceptual
framework for testing various hypotheses on the institutional set-up
of EMBs.
Hypothesizing that de iure and de facto independence of EMBs foster
fair elections, the detailed institutional set-up of EMBs as
independent variable is outlined in order to test for the level of
democracy as a dependent variable. Furthermore, the importance of
EOMs as well as their interaction effect with EMBs is analyzed.
Although by now EOMs are sent to almost any country with elections,
their impact has not been analyzed in an encompassing way in spite
of that the mission have intensified in their work, have become more
costly and their verdicts are gaining ever more publicity.

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